As if mechanical wristwatches aren’t anachronistic enough, some brands now are going back in time: They’re equipping new models with mechanical movements that must be wound by hand.

Unlike the self-winding watch that uses a rotor to harness the movement of a wearer’s wrist to keep the timekeeping going, a hand-wound movement relies on the wearer to wind it. Almost all watches had to be wound this way until the 1920s and ’30s, when makers, including Rolex, developed a number of improvements and Louis Recordon patented a self-winding wristwatch in England in 1924.

In addition to having vintage cred, manual-wind watches seem to have a particular appeal in our world-weary times. According to a Euromonitor report on the top 10 global consumer trends for 2023, people are feeling overwhelmed and want to hit pause on pretty much everything.

“People are past the point of burnout,” the report said. “Exhaustion is at an all-time high.”

Enter the manual-wind watch, like Oris’s Big Crown Calibre 473 ($4,400), which was introduced in January and is a revival of one of the brand’s best-sellers during the 1930s to 1950s. In a retro-size 38 millimeters with both small seconds and pointed date displays, the watch features a 120-hour power reserve indicator on the case back.

Rolf Studer, co-chief executive of Oris, called the act of winding a watch “a moment of contemplation, a moment to take for yourself” — and which, given the length of the power reserve, allows the wearer to reflect on the past five days.

“Manual wind requires more interaction with your timepiece than an automatic watch,” Mr. Studer said. “If you’re into watches, that’s exactly what you like: to touch, manipulate and wind your watch.”

But he acknowledged that the winding requirement and the unusual powder-blue dial would not appeal to everyone. “It’s for people who may have other mechanical watches — and who understand watches,” he said.

The lack of a rotor generally allows manual-wind movements — and, ultimately, their exterior cases — to be smaller, which suits the current trend for small watches. While watch fans are known to call the 40-millimeter size “Goldilocks” because it is neither too big nor too small, several models introduced this year were in the low 30 millimeters, and some were even smaller.

For example, Patek Philippe’s Watch Art exhibition in June in Tokyo had a pair of special-edition manual-wound gold Calatrava watches, sized at 31 millimeters and 36 millimeters (the display also had a host of exceptional hand-wound métiers d’art timepieces).

Bulgari also played with size in developing its manual-wind BVL 100 Piccolissimo movement, introduced last year. It is one of the smallest and thinnest movements on the market: 12.3 millimeters in diameter and 2.5 millimeters thick, and it weighs 1.3 grams (less than 0.05 ounces).

“Our very important clients were saying that they had so many high-jewelry watches but found it was a pity that the tiny batteries soon ran out,” said Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani, the brand’s production creation executive director. “You can use a battery for about a year, but after the second or third year when you go to pick it up from your safe, the watch doesn’t work anymore. A mechanical movement is forever.”

The Piccolissimo first was used in Bulgari’s high-jewelry Serpenti Misteriosi watches, but this year it made its way into the new Mediterranea high-jewelry collection, presented in Venice in May. Among the most dazzling pieces was the Giardino Marino Grande (price on application), a watch bracelet with an underwater seascape design featuring fish, shells, sea anemones and coral accented with more than 4,000 gems. A central fish can be flipped up to reveal the 14-millimeter dial of a Piccolissimo-powered watch; it is wound via a special flat mechanism on the back of the bracelet.

Manual-wind movements highlight a watch’s vintage look. At the Watches and Wonders Geneva trade fair in the spring, Panerai unveiled the Radiomir California PAM01349 ($12,300), featuring what the industry calls a California dial: The hours are marked with a combination of Roman numerals, Arabic numbers and dashes, with an inverted triangle at 12 o’clock.

The dial was popular in the 1930s for its legibility in lowlight conditions. It probably is best known for its appearance in a Panerai-Rolex partnership during that decade that now is something of a cult favorite.

The case of the PAM01349 is made of recycled steel with a hand-burnished finish for a weathered look. Its P.5000 caliber, which has an eight-day power reserve, is hand wound with the Panerai signature oversize and cone-shape crown.

Jaeger-LeCoultre’s new Art Deco-style Reverso Secret Necklace and Reverso One Precious Colours both have notably ultrafeminine designs and proportions, and they are powered by the watchmaker’s manual-winding caliber 846. With 93 parts and shaped to echo the Reverso’s rectangular case, the movement is notably thinner than an automatic one (the Secret Necklace is 9.51 millimeters and the Precious Colours is 9.09 millimeters), Jaeger-LeCoultre’s chief executive, Catherine Rénier, wrote in an email.

Piaget looked to 1989 — in particular, a commission for a diamond and sapphire jewelry watch that the watchmaker reissued earlier this year. The new Limelight Aura (price on application), available in 30 millimeters and 35 millimeters, is powered by the brand’s ultrathin 430P hand-wound movement, a direct descendant of its famous ultrathin 9P hand-wound movement from 1957.

Jean-Bernard Forot, Piaget’s head of patrimony, wrote in an email that it was “an authentic decision” to equip the new Aura with the same 430P hand-wound movement that powered the original. Plus, he added, “this watch isn’t likely to be worn every day, so winding it on the special occasions on which you wear it is a pleasure.”

The 430P caliber, at just 2.1 millimeters thick and with a power reserve of about 43 hours, is appearing across the Piaget portfolio, from its classic Altiplano Origin line to high-jewelry and decorative métiers d’art watches.

Not all manual-wind watches evoke the past, however.

This year, Louis Vuitton used manual winding in a new automata, a mechanical creation that often features a moving scene. Imitating the rapid mask changes that are a feature of the Sichuan Opera Bai Lian in China, the Tambour Opera Automata (price on application) features five animations, including a mask that changes expression as well as jumping hours, and a retrograde minute hand. Its power reserve indicator is expressed with a bottle gourd, which the wearer can see empty over the course of 100 hours and, by simply winding the crown, watch it fill up again.